Popular online content creators paused advertisements or cut ties with Established Titles on Friday after it was revealed that the company cannot make customers official Scottish Lords or Ladies when they purchase one of their packages. Further, the company does not officially sell land and does not plant a tree for every purchase, as promised on its website.
According to their website, Established Titles, a customer can "Purchase a personal Lordship or Ladyship Title Pack with dedicated land in Scotland," and "Our Title Packs are based on a historic Scottish land ownership custom, where landowners have been long referred to as 'Lairds', the Scottish term for 'Lord', with the female equivalent being 'Lady'."
Established Titles claimed that, with every purchase, a customer receives "A dedicated plot of land measuring 1 square foot, 5 square feet or 10 square feet," "A personalized title certificate with your name or the name of the title holder," and "We plant a tree for every order."
Packages start at $49.95.
YouTube content creator, Scott Shafer, published a video on Wednesday breaking down the scam and said all of their promised deliverables "from the buying of land to being given a lord title and even the planting of trees is a complete lie."
Shafer's YouTube notes his goal is "exposing Fake Gurus, from Amazon FBA, to Youtube Automation, and Crypto scams."
Shafer first explained how Established Titles does not actually sell land but uses the term "souvenir plot" to describe the purchase. According to Scotland's 2012 Land Registration Act, a souvenir plot, "(a) is of inconsiderable size and of no practical utility, and (b) is neither (i) a registered plot, nor (ii) a plot the ownership of which has, at any time, separately been constituted or transferred by a document recorded in the Register of Sasines."
The Register of Sasines is Scotland's public land registrar and is the oldest public land registration in the world.
"If you were to go to Scotland and try and claim your land or try and do anything with it really you would be laughed at because you don't actually own anything, Established Titles is still the landowner and may give you a worthless piece of paper telling you that you own land when under the laws of Scotland, you clearly do not," Shafer continued.
"Ownership of a souvenir plot of land is not sufficient to bring a person otherwise ineligible within the jurisdiction of the Lord line for seeking a coat of arms," he added.
Several other websites, such as LairdOfBlackwood.com and ScottishLaird.com promise similar titles as Established Titles but none bestow any official title from Scotland.
Established Titles does not plant a tree either. "The only thing established titles does is donate money to an actual tree planting company," Shafer said.
That company is OneTreePlanted.
On Thursday, popular creator The Quartering first addressed the controversy and wrote."I see everyone in my mentions about a certain sponsor getting "exposed". I will check it out but also never really thought of it as anything but a fun/goofy gift so I am not sure how evil it's going to turn out to be. That said contracts expire at the EOY & I will re-evaluate."
Sydney Watson reposted that message and wrote, "I will be doing the same. Have several ad spots for this brand going into Dec too. They won't be going ahead. Trust/integrity more important than dollhairs."
Later that same day, The Quartering made it very clear and wrote, "Cutting Ties With Established Titles."
The Quartering spoke for himself and for many other content creators and noted that the gift seemed like a "gag gift" and otherwise harmless but after the recent developments had to cut ties with the company.
On the company's "About" section, Katerina Yip is noted as the company's founder. On LinkedIN her profile reads she is Co-Founder & President at fail ventures and is based out of Hong Kong. William Wolfram is listed as an executive for the company as well, and as, Shafer points out, was the founder of DealDash, another company that faced controversy for working similar to ebay, where users bid on items, but all the bids end up getting paid to the company.Join and support independent free thinkers!
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